Merriam-Webster has several definitions for the word “revolution”,
but the one that applies to the forthcoming discussion is this; “a changeover in use or preference especially in technology”. A couple of examples of this would be the
computer revolution and the foreign car revolution.
In 2009, Richmond Italia re-entered the
paintball industry with a new company (GI Milsim). He also came back with a revolutionary idea
(well, he proposed it as being revolutionary); that being that 50 caliber
paintballs would find a big place in the paintball market. He basically told us that 50 caliber was
better (and cheaper) than 68 caliber, and a switch should take place. At least, that’s the way most people
interpreted his marketing.
It didn’t take long for a counter-revolution
to rise, with many self proclaimed experts in the player’s ranks, doing tests
that demonstrated that 50 caliber was in fact inferior, rather than superior to
68 caliber paintball. The
counter-revolution was so massive and widespread that the 50 caliber revolution
was squashed. Italia stopped publicly
marketing the 50 caliber revolution. 50
caliber was dead, or so most thought.
But GI Milsim never stopped making 50
caliber products. Nor did other
companies like Kingmann. Other companies
that were thinking of getting into the 50 caliber market did stop though, for
the most part. 50 caliber was a viable
option apparently in some parts of the world, where restrictions based on the
energy of a projectile leaving the muzzle of a “gun”. In some parts of the world, 68 caliber didn’t
comply, 50 caliber did. So there was
still a market, albeit not as big as the lucrative North American market.
Three years later in 2012, JT entered the
50 caliber market with the JT Splatmaster; a 50 caliber spring powered
paintball marker aimed at the young player market (8 years and up). Surprisingly, this was met with a lot of good
reviews from current players. The
difference? Current players weren’t
threatened. JT wasn’t telling them that
their new product was going to take over the paintball world. JT wasn’t telling people that they would
eventually have to change to JT Splatmasters and 50 caliber paintballs. And so 50 caliber had started to find its
niche in the paintball market.
But the evolution (not revolution) of 50
caliber paintball had started long before JT introduced the JT Splatmaster. There were paintball fields all over North
America that incorporated 50 caliber paintball as part of their offerings. Although 50 caliber paintball was in some
ways inferior to 68 caliber paintball, it’s big advantage lay in the fact that
50 caliber paintballs, when shot at the same velocity, carry much less
energy. Less energy translates into less
pain when it hits a person. Since
paintball is all about hitting people with paintballs, this fact was not lost
on those whose potential customers are concerned with the pain associated with
paintball.
I’ve mentioned it on my blog before, that
change almost always happens due to economic pressures, unless mandated by a
governing entity. The demand for less
painful paintball is an economic reality.
Field owners know this (well most of them anyway). Those that have previously read my blog, know
that I have often talked about extreme/intense and less extreme/intense
paintball. You also know that I feel
that the two versions attract different types of people. Mostly I’ve related this to Rate of Fire (the
number of paintballs shot divided by some measurement of time). I’ve also mentioned that the drop in price of
paintballs has majorly contributed to the increase in Rate of Fire. The problem lies in the fact that field
owners feel the need to sell larger volumes of paintballs to meet expenses (low
volume sales with low prices doesn’t work out so well). This is where the 50 caliber paintball comes
in. But 50 caliber paintballs aren’t
priced all that much different than their 68 caliber cousins. So how does this help the field owner?
With 50 caliber paintballs, field owners
can still supply the easier to use semi-auto markers that make new players feel
like Rambo, can still sell 50 caliber paintballs as cheap or even cheaper than 68
caliber, meaning the same or even higher volumes will be shot, but people
playing the game will still have a less extreme experience due to less pain
associated with hits. This attracts a different
demographic of customers; a demographic that wouldn’t play the 68 caliber
version. And so the 50 caliber Evolution
is slowly taking place, even though the 50 caliber Revolution was squashed
years ago.
Will 50 caliber replace 68 caliber
paintball? No, I doubt that will ever
happen (unless mandated). But 50 caliber
paintball will grow and that’s a good thing.
It’s still paintball and it attracts people to paintball fields; more
people. I, for one, am not going to
complain about that.
